


I Love What the Place Has Done With You

by writingonpostcards



Series: 10k Posts Giveaway [17piesinseptember] [4]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Getting Together, M/M, Magical Realism, Mistletoe, featuring an entire apartment building as a wingman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-27 09:41:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20758283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingonpostcards/pseuds/writingonpostcards
Summary: Written for my10k posts giveaway on TumblrPrompt: Tater/ransom/holster. I'm a sucker for all the fluff, soulmates, meet cutes, established relationship, domesticity. I'm also always down for angst with a happy ending. Magical aus are my freaking JAM! Big fantasy fan.This is a magical realism, Justin gets wingmaned by a house,*gasp*and they wereroomsoulmates, kind of fic.





	I Love What the Place Has Done With You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Raerae104](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raerae104/gifts).

> I Love What You've Done With The Place (or What The Place Has Done To You) seemed to long for a title. I hope you'll understand what I was going for by the end of the fic.
> 
> Concept taken from the Sterek fic ['When sparks fly'](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3693374/chapters/8169905) (definitely worth a read if you're into that ship)

Justin knows immediately something is wrong when he walks out of the pantry with a packet of marshmallows and hears Mariah Carey singing about wanting someone for Christmas.

He’s not in his apartment.

It would be alarming except that he’s lost count of how many times it’s happened already, him walking out of a doorway in his apartment and directly into someone else's. Well, two other people’s on an alternating basis. It’s been terrible for his libido.

“Hello?”

Someone swears and runs loudly into the kitchen. Justin is confronted by Adam wearing a sweater with a dreidel on it.

“Oh,” Adam says, lowering a hockey stick. “Hey, Justin.”

Justin waves, half disappointed half grateful the apartment block hasn’t thrown him into Adam’s bathroom like it did last time. While Adam was showering.

“Sorry.” The doors are still here this time. Justin heads for one to leave.

“You wanna stay?” Adam calls. “I was just making hot chocolate. Marshmallows would be perfect.”

The building is getting far too good at this.

-

Justin bangs his shin into a bedframe and swears too loudly for the middle of the night.

A lamp switches on and that’s when Justin realises he’s not in his apartment.

“Justin?”

Alexei pushes up, the blankets falling around him. His chest is bare and his hair is tussled. Justin is not awake enough for this.

“Fuck. Sorry, man. Apartment’s playing games again.”

“All good. Your leg is okay?”

Justin looks down. “Bleeding a little.”

“I have bandaid.” Alexei gets out of bed and Justin swallows a moan to see he’s only in briefs. His thing about shoulders is coming out in full force and his body betrays him. Thank god for his oversized sleeping shirt.

-

It’s after he walks out his bedroom one morning with terrible morning breath and socks with holes in them straight into Adam’s bedroom where he’s in the middle of doing sit-ups that Justin finally loses his cool.

He doesn’t say anything to Adam, just marches back into his own apartment, slamming the door loudly.

"I know I'm terrible at making moves on my own!” Justin yells to the sentient apartment walls, “but that doesn't mean you get to help by throwing me into embarrassing situations with the men I like!"

The house opens and shuts the doors of his hall cupboard loudly.

"Yeah, yeah. You'll get over it,” Justin grouses, faceplanting onto his couch. 

Justin isn’t sure how he feels to be wing-manned by an entire building.

-

Justin pushes his head through his sweater and freezes. Alexei and Adam are both in his living room. 

Justin slowly pulls the sweater down. “This is new.” 

The house has never brought anyone to him before.

“Uh, welcome to my place, I guess.” 

At least Justin isn’t the only one in pyjamas.

“Is nice home,” Alexei offers Justin with a smile that eases a little of the nerves Justin grew a few seconds ago.

“Sorry you guys got pulled in here so late.”

“It’s chill,” Adam shrugs. “I haven’t seen this apartment since two tenants ago. Looks way better how you’ve set it up.”

“Thanks.”

Justin sees movement out of the corner of his eye. The apartment is pushing a bough of mistletoe out from his ceiling light.

“You guys hungry? Thirsty?” he quickly offers, pushing them through into his kitchen. 

Three people of their size in his narrow kitchen overwhelms the space. He breathes in and smells Adam’s shampoo and Alexei’s moisturiser. He feels lightheaded and flushed but at least there’s no mistletoe in here. He has a quick check of his ceiling to make sure. All clear.

A cupboard by Adam’s legs opens and he’s forced to take a step toward Justin to stay standing.

“Woah,” Adam exhales. “Is the apartment normally this forceful with you?” 

“Only in the past week. I think I upset it.”

“Oh. Is not good.” Alexei looks at him with concern on his face. “Apartment very sensitive.”

“I know that now,” Justin tells Alexei, swiftly closing a cupboard that pops open near his head, revealing shelves stuffed with more mistletoe.

Justin’s cutlery jaw clatters open and Alexei has to step out of the way quickly, right into the space between Justin and Adam. The hard muscle of his chest brushes against Justin.

“Let’s move out of kitchen,” Alexei suggests. “Too many doors.”

Adam nods in agreement. Justin swallows and nods as well. Anywhere with more breathing room sounds great right now, otherwise he might give in to the demands of the apartment and his own body and plant a kiss on them both.

Justin is sure the mistletoe won’t have disappeared so he rushes them past the door to the living room and out into his hallway.

He stops three feet into the corridor. Two bodies crash into him.

“Holy. Shit.” Adam’s whisper brushes air across Justin’s ear. He shivers.

“Wow.” Alexei steps around Justin and reaches a hand up. “Never seen apartment do this before.”

“Me neither.” Adam moves around Justin to copy Alexei’s movements. “This is the real thing too.”

The apartment has grown a dense vine of mistletoe all the way along Justin’s corridor, which is impressive as mistletoe should only grow on trees, not ceilings. 

A clump of the plant breaks off in Adam and Alexei's hands. Justin reaches to take it off them when the whole thing disappears and they're left in the most haphazard handhold Justin has ever been a part of.

He only has a second to feel awkward about that because as soon as the three of them are touching, a coloured cloud of mist rises from their hands--orange, red and yellow mixing together like a sunset.

Alexei breathes out shakily. Adam's jaw drops. Justin looks between them, his own wide-eyed wonder reflected back in their gazes.

Adam breaks the silence. "No wonder the house was trying so hard."

Justin swallows. Someone's hand is shaking. It might be his. "Yeah."

"Soulmates," Alexei breathes out.

"Yeah."

The next move seems obvious. The mistletoe is still right there.

**Author's Note:**

> Subscribe to the series so you don't miss any! They'll also be posted to [tumblr](https://17piesinseptember.tumblr.com/) and [pillowfort.](https://www.pillowfort.social/writingonpostcards)
> 
> Thanks [notenoughgatorade](http://notenoughgatorade.tumblr.com/) for the beta read.
> 
> Comments are to me like Bitty saying 'sweetpea' is to Jack.


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